REVIEW FROM PULPMOVIES.COM

This has to be one of the strangest films I’ve seen in quite some time. The blurb on the back of the DVD tells you that this is the story of the Bullions, your average inbred cannibal family living in the deep woods.

This completely undersells the film.

What we have is an unlikely mix of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Mothers Day, held together with a darkly absurdist sensibility.

The rather loose plot congeals around Beefteena (Alan Rowe Kelly, who appears to be channelling Divine), the 40-going-on-12 year old daughter of the Bullion family. To say that Beefteena is not all there is a bit of an understatement, as is apparent as soon as we are introduced to her prancing through the suburbs with her pet dead squirrel. Not surprisingly, Beefteena attracts both revulsion and ridicule in equal measure.

And when these reactions lead to her being tormented by one of the local teenagers her brothers, Butternut (Joshua Nelson) and Hubcap (Mike Lane) arrive on the scene, ultimately setting off one of the multiple sub-plots that make up this film.

The plotting of The Blood Shed is quite unique in that there doesn’t seem to be any overall narrative. Instead, writer/director Alan Rowe Kelly has stitched together a series of tangential plot threads which allow him to focus entirely on the inbred insanity of the Bullion family.

This approach works surprisingly well, due in no small part to the exceptionally high standard of the acting. Each of the five of the main characters – as well as the ones already mentioned, we also have Papa Elvis Bullion (Terry West) and Sno Cakes (Susan Adriensen), who lives in a tent in the garden – has a distinct personality and the cast do a great job of bringing these personalities to the fore and ensuring that none of the characters ever descends into becoming an homogenised serial killer.

The result is that while all of these characters are thoroughly unlikeable, they exert a morbid fascination that keeps you watching – if only to find out how things are going to end. And when they go over the top – as they often do – the results are both painful and funny.

The Blood Shed is a deft homage to the exploitation films of the 1970s and early 80s and, if you’ve watched too many of these films, it will raise some knowing smiles. And even if you haven’t, this is an experience that any horror fan will enjoy.

But what really makes the film stand out us its unique mixture of horror and slapstick, which achieves a genuinely disturbing effect that will stay with you for quite some time.